DEL.
TONY
E. FULTON, D-Baltimore
Fulton escaped conviction on 11 charges of federal mail and wire
fraud. Prosecutors had alleged that Fulton made empty claims that he was going to push for anti-lead
paint legislation so that lobbyist Gerard Evans could collect money from his lead paint
company clients to lobby against it. Fulton also allegedly received a $10,000
payment from Evans' firm, which prosecutors argued was a payoff. But with little
evidence to consider, the jury acquitted Fulton on some of the charges and deadlocked on the
others. After prosecutors declined a retrial, the Joint Committee on
Legislative Ethics decided not to
investigate. Fulton remains in office.

DEL.
GERALD
J. CURRAN, D-Baltimore
Curran resigned from the Legislature Feb. 27, 1998, in the middle of an investigation by the
ethics committee prompted by a story published in The (Baltimore) Sun. The Sun
alleged that Curran acted as a broker in a number of insurance deals with
state
agencies. Among these was a deal that entitled Curran to collect
commissions on insurance policies with employees of one of Maryland's
largest credit unions. As chairman of
the Commerce and Government Matters Committee, Curran oversaw legislation
dealing with credit unions and ethics. The investigation stopped when he resigned, because the
committee only has jurisdiction over sitting members.

SEN. LARRY YOUNG,
D-BaltimoreThe Senate expelled Young on Jan. 16, 1998,
for using his position to profit his private business. Young, who sat as
chairman of the Health subcommittee of the Senate Finance
Committee, was also president of a private, for-profit health consulting firm
called the LY Group. The ethics committee found that
Young used his position and influence to leverage tens of thousands of
dollars into the LY Group. In addition, the committee found that Young
solicited and accepted a number of gifts in violation of the ethics law,
including a $24,800 1995 blue Lincoln Town Car. He was later acquitted of criminal
bribery charges. Full CNS story

Lobbyists

GERARD
EVANS
On July 14, 2000, Evans, one of the state's top-earning lobbyists,
was convicted of nine counts of federal mail and wire fraud for cheating clients.
According to
prosecutors, he warned his clients that anti-lead paint legislation was in
the works, even though it wasn't. Evans then accepted hundreds of
thousands of dollars from his lead-paint company clients to lobby against
the supposed legislation. Evans received
30 months in prison and a $50,000 fine. He was also ordered to repay
$139,000 to the paint companies.

BRUCE
BEREANO
Bereano was convicted on Nov. 30, 1994, on federal mail fraud charges. The
jury found that he had billed clients for entertaining legislators when what
he really did with the money was make illegal campaign contributions to
political candidates. He
was sentenced to five months in a halfway house, five months of home
detention and three years of probation. He was ordered to perform 500
hours of community service and was fined $20,000. Bereano was able to keep his
Maryland law license and continue lobbying while
serving his sentence. He has since resumed his spot as one of the top-paid
Maryland lobbyists.